Nibs and Flourishes

And if your pen happens to be a clear demonstrator, it looks fabulous coating the inside of the barrel

I would probably pick Iroshizuku Yama Budo, a purplish magenta with great performance and shading. Looks great every nib I have ever tried.

Mary Oliver poem lettered in Fountain pen with a lavender chromoshading ink

Wednesday Words - Mary Oliver. Pen: Sailor Pro Gear Winter Sky with a Zoom nib turned architect by Kirk Speer @penrealm. I always ink this one up in January. The ink is Sailor Manyo Fuji, and I love how this nib shows off chromoshading inks. #fountainpen

Brown and turquoise mug stamped with butterflies and flowers, with a turquoise and silver pen on top

Have a lovely Turquoise Tuesday, everyone - Visconti Divina Wave and a pretty mug

Thee above should say I love NIBS, all kinds. Darn autocorrect

Purple fountain pen and purple ink drawing

I did the same! Turns out Gala was a perfect match for my Taccia

Writing samples of the nibs of 2025

2025 - the Nibbage. I love jobs, ALL kinds. And after several decades in this hobby I am always looking for new nib experiences and experimenting with how to adjust my writing to get the most of a nib. Here sre the nibs of either new pens or old pens with new grinds in 2025 #fountainpen

That’s fair. Though the smell of Smoky Tobacco was so awful I can’t forgive it. It isn’t a bad brown, it the smell means I will never use it

Nibs and Flourishes on Instagram: "My recap of this year’s Inkvent calendar. Should I do the Inkvent again next year? Switch to the Colorverse one? Neither? I don’t have the time to do both. Poll belo... Join the conversation and share your thoughts on the 2023 Inkvent calendar, from favorite inks to possible improvements for future editions. Will we stick with the Inkvent tradition or mix things up w...

I did a little Inkvent recap reel on my Instagram #fountainpen www.instagram.com/reel/DSvPOPa...

White fountain pen with three White dahlia blooms and a chunk of Rose quartz

Closeup of the Waldmann pen

Dahlia closeup

Friday Flowers Flashback to September’s Onesta dahlias. Pen: Waldmann Xetra Vienna white/rose gold

Ink ornament drawing and fountain pen

Drawing closeup

Ink swatch comparison

Inkvent Day 25 - Myrrh the Merrier is a very sheeny deep blue-leaning teal with blue shimmer. To me it looks like a darker, blue shimmer version of Day 1’s Celestial Skies (I prefer the latter). Myrrh is pretty, but darker, sheenier and messier. Pen: Kilk x Hatch Epigram Dusk #fountainpen

Forgot to tag this with #fountainpen

Ink swatches of my favorite new blurples of 2025

2025 was a very good year for new blurple inks! purple Gallinule isn’t a new release but it was new to me. I love blurples! #fountainpen

Thanks! A little water goes a long way

Ink ornament drawing and fountain pen

Ink drawing closeup

Ink swatch comparison

Inkvent Day 24 - Antler is a pigment ink, taupe with a pinkish undertone. IMO this is the most useful of all the pigment inks in the set and it will make a nice sketching ink. The comparisons are to DeAtramentis Document waterproof brown inks. Pen: Sailor King of Pens Naginata Togi Ebonite Umesaki.

And some thin Japanese papers make inks look fabulous

Interesting - I used the exact same pen and paper

Unfortunately paper thickness is not always well-correlated with fountain pen friendliness

There aren’t many turquoise/turquoise shimmer inks out there - usually it’s silver or gold shimmer. So I’ll give it a thumbs up for that, but I prefer the other inks in the comparison swatches to Let it Snow, which is lighter than I prefer to write with, so not a full bottle candidate for me.

Ink ornament drawing and fountain pen

Drawing closeup

Ink swatch comparison

Inkvent Day 23 - Let it Snow, perfectly timed for Turquoise Tuesday! This is a light turquoise with supposedly chameleon shimmer, though to me it just looks like a similar turquoise to the base ink itself. (Cont’d) Pen: River City Pen Co. In Dupras Arctic Ice.

I could see that! But I’d prefer CMYK base colors without shimmer in them

Ink ornament drawing and fountain pen

Closeup of drawing

Ink swatch. Comparison with other Diamine yellow/gold shimmers

Inkvent Day 22 - Pineapple Spritz - a pigment ink with chameleon shimmer. Not a fan. I had to go over the lines a few times to make it more legible. Not a fan of this one. Art ink only, I’d say. Comparisons are to other Diamine yellow/gold shimmers. Pen: Esterbrook Estie Peacock #fountainpen

Favorite new neutral inks swabs, Tomoe River paper

Same inks on Wearingeul swatch cards

The most interesting “neutral” inks I tried in 2025. The term neutral is subjective, of course, and some have quite colorful undertones, but that’s the fun of complex neutrals. Pic one on Tomoe River paper, pic 2 on Wearingeul swatch cards. Many of them look different depending on paper

I have not tried that one!

Given the price of gold these days and the multiple price hikes within the last year for gold nib pens, a very reasonable decision!

As I have said before, not keen on extreme sheen but would have liked it better with a more moderate amount of sheen.

You can see the base color better in the comparison swatches, and the full range of the chroma better in the last photo on Yu-sari paper. Like most of the other extreme sheeners this year, the sheen almost covers the base color in writing, but not totally.

Ink ornament drawing and fountain pen

Closeup of the drawing

Ink swatch comparison

Ink and water mix to show chroma

Inkvent Day 21 -Chaos is another Extreme Sheen ink, a deep, plummy burgundy with very strong green sheen. The triangle interiors shapes on the ornament are an ink and water mix and I laid the ink down heavily on the borders to show the extreme sheen. (Cont’d) Pen: Purple Twist by Tamenuri Studio

Since I have yet to use my little bottle of Celebration except for ink comparisons, I doubt I will use this often.

I found the effect interesting but a little odd. I couldn’t really get the shimmer to show its sparkle in these photos but it is there (see the bits that look slightly pinkish purple in the first and third photo). The ink color is a bit too light for many nibs IMO.